Serena Williams hilariously revealed how she tried to scare her husband with a rat during their first ever meeting. Alexis Ohanian, who is married to the 23-time Grand Slam singles champion, is the co-founder of Reddit
He quit his job at the company in June 2020 and said he made the move for his family. Ohanian wed Williams in 2017 and the couple have a three-year-old daughter, also named Alexis.
Williams was there for the Italian Open and Ohanian was in town for the Festival of Media Global conference – but it wasn’t love at first sight.
Recalling the moment she locked eyes on her husband for the first time, Williams said to Vanity Fair: “This big guy comes and he just plops down at the table next to us, and I’m like, ‘Huh! All these tables and he’s sitting here?'”
Williams and her party tried to get him to move to one of the other empty tables – and even told him there was a rat by him.
Revealing her excuse, she added: “No, we just don’t want you sitting there. We’re going to use that table.”
Ohanian replied: “I’m from Brooklyn. I see rats all the time,” as Serena replied: “Oh, you’re not afraid of rats?”
Her question was immediately shut down by Ohanian, with Williams then encouraging the Reddit founder to sit with them – and the rest is history.
Williams later invited Ohanian to meet her in Paris for the French Open and they went on their first date.
At the end of 2016, Ohanian proposed at the same hotel where they met in Rome over a romantic dinner for two near the pool deck which was covered in roses.
In 2017, they welcomed Alexis Olympia Ohanian Jr in September and married in November in New Orleans.
In 2021, Oshanian shared: “I’ll be a self-made billionaire one day and most people will still know me as Serena’s husband (or Olympia’s dad) and that’s fine by me.”
In 2022, in response to Drake’s diss track about him being a “groupie,” the tech whizz responded: “The reason I stay winning is because I’m relentless about being the absolute best at whatever I do – including being the best groupie for my wife and daughter.”
Williams last played competitive tennis in the 2022 US Open in September, with the 41-year-old receiving a heartfelt send-off following her loss to Ajla Tomljanovic in the third round of the Grand Slam tournament.
Even in her retirement, or what she called her evolution from the sport, Williams continues to remain an enigma.
Whether or not she returns to the court is a question for another day, however, she did recently tell The San Francisco Standard: “I am not retired. The chances of me returning are very high. You can come to my house and see I have a court.”
